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Senior Living

2009-11-01 15:55:00

The many uses of hypnosis

Question: Can hypnosis help my athletic performance?

Answer: From High School on up to the Olympics and professional sports, hypnosis is being used to improve athletic performance around the world. I don’t know of a single sport, with human contestants, where hypnosis can’t help the participant to perform at a higher, more perfect level. Golfers regularly use hypnosis session to lower their scores through more accurate and longer drives, putts etc.. They also are calmer and more exacting with their swing because of the work they do while in that wonderful, relaxing state called hypnosis. The story is that Tiger Woods’ father hired a hypnotist to go to every game with Tiger when he was 13 years old. I can’t confirm the story, but when I watch Tiger get ready for a drive, he certainly appears to be using self-hypnosis to concentrate and calm himself. But then when you really watch, almost all of the professional golfers are using hypnotic technique to improve their game. Olympians in all sports use self-hypnosis techniques to improve their performance. They call it “getting in the zone.” Most teams have a professional hypnotist available, if not as a regular member of the team support staff. I remember being in Danbury, Connecticut a few years ago, doing a seminar for group hypnosis to lose weight and stop smoking. My seminars consisted of three parts, with the first being a description of hypnosis, what to expect during the actual hypnosis sessions and some demonstrations of how effective hypnosis was with volunteers. During the break, a young man, who looked like a barrel of muscle came up to me and said “ You’re right about hypnosis to get in the zone, but I’ve lost it. I can’t get it back” Since he seemed a bit disturbed I asked him what he had lost.. He told me that he had been an Olympic wrestling medalist, but he was working in Connecticut at the time and had “lost the zone”. He again became a little agitated as he told me how he used to be able to get in the zone, but now was unable to. He had forgotten how. I reminded him of how I had explained earlier that the subconscious mind remembered everything that had ever happened to us. I explained that he hadn’t lost the zone, but instead has just lost the way to it. He had the zone still in his subconscious. I did a quick technique with him and helped him find the zone again. He was a grateful young man, and I was proud to have helped one of our country’s champions. I was blown away the next morning as we opened a new seminar about a hundred miles away, and the same young man walked in, this time with a strong tall girl in tow. He explained that she was his fiancé, and as an Olympic karate champ, she also needed help getting back to the zone. I was glad to oblige. There have been quite a few scientific studies done to determine if hypnosis actually was helping or if it was just that people thought they were better. In the studies, performances were quantified, and averaged, for groups of participants prior to being hypnotized. Then a portion of the group were given hypnosis sessions for improvement, while the other portion received only instructions to relax. The group which had received hypnosis showed a marked improvement over a long period of time as compared to those which only received relaxation instructions. Hypnosis can help in both team or individual sports. I always wanted to get my hands on Shaquille O Neal to improve his free throws, but could never get through the security ring to reach him. The uses of hypnosis to improve performance is almost limitless. In fact it may be limitless, because we keep finding ways to use it. For instance, a policeman, who is having trouble qualifying on the pistol range can improve his score dramatically and quickly with just one hypnosis session. Likewise the archer, hunter, skeet shooter, can improve their game. Long distance runners, or swimmers, usually go into an altered ( read that hypnotic) state to stave off fatigue. Lance Armstrong once was quoted as explaining that he went off into his imagination during a race, so he felt good and didn’t concentrate on the fatigue and pain. It is quite common, during contact sports for a player to be injured, but to play on without pain until later, because the subconscious mind understands the desire of the player to keep on with the game. It’s not that the player ignores the pain, but that in reality, the pain is removed, much as we do in the surgical suite. It is a form of self-hypnosis. Dancers use self-hypnosis techniques to perfect their moves, their concentration and to calm their nerves. Calming techniques result in softer, more pliable, stronger muscles which respond better to the controlling thoughts. Relaxed muscles are less likely to be injured. It also means without the muscle constriction of nervousness, there is more energy available for dancing. Whatever the sport, one of the techniques often used is for the athlete to go into a hypnotic state and imagine they are playing their sport perfectly. They are almost as if they are actually doing the sport as they practice in their minds. It has been noticed in some athletes that they begin to sweat after a period of imagined perfect play while in the hypnotic state. After working in this perfection of the mind, the athlete takes to the field, or floor expecting to do everything right. This is where the first law of the mind takes affect. The first law of the mind is “ That which is expected, tends to be realized.” I know many of you have heard a person say, “ I can’t do that” and then prove themselves right. And right after them, comes a person who really shouldn’t be able to do it, but believes they can. That person succeeds. Hypnosis can create those positive beliefs and implant them strongly in the subconscious mind of accomplishment. It can also remove negative beliefs, and replace them with positive thoughts. If you want to improve your game, hypnosis can help. Of course, when we talk about sports improvement, someone always asks about bedroom sports, Yes it can help there too.